Whatever the Case May Be

Philosophical concepts/themes: 1.5 out of 10. Rose does mention a fine line between denial and faith, but that’s about it.

Character development: 1.5 out of 10. Fillerfillerfiller. This episode was forced, awkward, contrived, and almost embarassing. More and more, I’m noticing Kate staring out into the distance, and more and more, it’s bothering me. Evangeline Lilly just does not have the chops to pull off the, “I have so much inner torture and conflict” thing. I will say that Kate’s crying scene near the end with the “It belonged to the man I loved…it belonged to the man I killed,” line was convincing, and it sets up my favorite Kate flashback. The Rose and Charlie scenes were nicely understated as well. But between the forced Kate stuff and the unconvincing budding romance between Sayid and Shannon (which culminates next season in one of the most unconvincing scenes in the series, in my opinion), this episode was, to quote Boone talking to Shannon, “useless.”

Importance of episode to series: 0.5 out of 10. Worthless filler. Nothing of note happens besides giving Rose some more screen time, the camp moving up the beach, Boone slowly pulling away from Shannon now that Sayid is “looking after” her, and the setup of probably Kate’s best flashback. The conversation between Jack and Sawyer where Jack talks about cutting off Sawyer’s arm, and Sawyer telling him that he wouldn’t be able to is a nice foreshadowing of Jack’s having to make that decison very soon with Boone.

Personal enjoyment of episode: 1 out 10. As mentioned above, Kate’s crying jag at the end and the Rose/Charlie stuff I liked, but neither of those can lift this episode to anywhere near mediocre.

That being said, it boggles my mind how anyone who watches the show with even a slightly critical eye, and who understands the show and its overall meaning and themes to even a small extent would be able to come up with any differing view on this episode than I have posted.